Q & A With Eddie Huang + Watch Episode 2 and 3 of Fresh Off The Boat L.A. Installment

Q & A With Eddie Huang + Watch Episode 2 and 3 of Fresh Off The Boat L.A. Installment

By Besha Rodell Tue., Dec. 18 2012 at 2:14 PM

BR: Do you still think of yourself primarily as a chef? Or a TV personality? Or a writer? I guess I mean -- what do you want to do when you grow up?

EH: I've never said I was a chef, I think I make great food. I will never open a restaurant to do, like, tasting courses. I kinda just want to be ... like I remember growing up my grandma would go to the same place every day for hot soy milk and dumplings. I don't want to own super restaurants. I just want to be that guy who sold 8-10 items really well, and you can always count on it. You can go, listen to great music, be with my friends, $20 and you can have a great meal. That's what food is to me. I don't really remember tasting meals, they don't hit me at my core. Baohaus is who I am. Sometimes I do pop up dinners to flex my muscles just so people know there's other things I can do, but this is what I choose to do. I choose to own this item and this type of dining.

But what I'm very interested in, whether it's writing, whether it's hosting a show, whether it's cooking food, I'm just into the discussions of identity, culture and the politics of culture. Gentrification is something I'm interested in. Appropriation, how to defend your culture and maintain your identity in America. Food was my way in because I tried to do it through writing, I tried to do it though other jobs, I worked at the Innocence Project and do it though the law, but I really used food as a way for me to start exploring these ideas.

And I think I've been successful in that, I think I've stayed very true to myself, I don't think I've ever curbed anything I've ever wanted to say for the sake of my business. And I'm proud of me and my brother for that. I'm proud of what Baohaus stands for. We'll never get a Michelin star or whatever, but I'm proud of what it means to customers, and especially young people.

BR: You can't possibly want a Michelin star.

EH: Yeah. No. I don't.

Watch Fresh Off The Boat, L.A. episode 3:

Want more Squid Ink? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Location Info

Venue

Map

BaoHaus

137 Rivington St., New York, NY

Category: Restaurant

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare

We Recommend

kianabedini

That's really cool how you disparaged "White people trying to act hard," and then in the next breath said, "And my thing is, look man, there's nothing more offensive than someone telling me I ought to talk, look or act a certain way because of my skin. I'm like, do you realize how ridiculous this is?"

I'm a fan, personally and professionally, but that wasn't a good look.

SlowlyNow

@kianabedini

Actually, he didn't diss "'White people trying to act hard'". He said, "what bothers me is, are there young white people trying too hard?"

And the answer is "yes, there are".

I could be way off-base, but my take on that statement and general feeling is that fakeness/insincerity is lame, in whatever guise it's in. Take fashion and its cultural signifiers, and the trend of hipsters digging up old basketball jerseys out of thrift stores. I saw a friend of a friend [white dude] at a backyard BBQ session and he was wearing a pretty dingy and tore up Hornets Larry Johnson jersey. I told him I was a huge LJ fan back in the day. The dude is a lot younger than me, and I asked him how he became a LJ fan, since he probably was 5 years old when LJ was in his prime. He told me he didn't actually watch basketball... I don't know why, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, dude doesn't watch basketball, and he's wearing this janky LJ jersey??? What kind of lame ass hiptard fashion statement is that? Freaking Zoolander Derelicte? He copped some shit he didn't even believe in or know anything about.

Then you take a guy like Eddie Huang. Dude is wearing a Wu-Tang shirt. A million people off the street are gonna be like, "oh, another Asian dude trying to be black. Must be a fake dude". But if you know about the guy, read his shit, you know he grew up listening to hip-hop. He's not Bud Bundy trying to be Grandmaster B. He's Eddie Huang being Eddie Huang.

Not really sure what my point is, but EH: he's no fake, I get nothing but realness about the guy, and I love what the dude is doing. Class/power/race/ethnicity/identity issues: the dude is honest, critical, has an extremely mature viewpoint on matters. But most Americans don't get it, won't get it, and some probably even would refuse to. Dude is deep: a jester, but no clown. I just hope he stays in the game a long time.